History of a Potions Master
by SheepDudeWriting
Summary: One man shows you snapshots of his life and his struggle between light and dark as he tries to become a potions master and fulfill his destiny
1. 1 Train Wrecks

**Chapter One**

 **Train Wrecks**

Severus Snape sat alone on the Hogwarts Express, staring down his hooked nose at his opened copy of Advanced Potion Making. Suddenly, the door of the compartment slid open, and Severus immediately looked up to see James Potter and his friends Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. James smiled maliciously, "Well, look who we have here." He led his friends into the compartment and closed the door behind him, sitting right next to Severus. "What're you reading, Snivellus? A book on how to properly condition your hair? I wouldn't be surprised. That hair of yours is greasy as heck."

"Shut up, Potter," Severus snapped back, trying to focus on his book.

"Ooooohhh, trying to be snotty now, huh?" James looked at Sirius. "Padfoot, seems like Greasy's feeling sassy. I'm surprised he hasn't scribbled out a note to his mommy yet. She wouldn't even be able to read it if he did. His handwriting looks like hieroglyphics!"

"Leave me alone!" Severus's angry black eyes met James's content hazel ones. He immediately stood up with his book and went to walk out the door until James and his friends blocked him.

"Leaving already, Snivellus?" James asked with a smirk. "Gonna go write that letter after all, complaining to your mommy? Well, I'll give you some advice. Make it legible for once. I guess I'll leave you to it!" With that, James and his friends roared with laughter and stalked out of the compartment and into the corridor, leaving Snape to sit down, full of rage, to continue reading his book.

About a minute later, Lily Evans walked into the compartment. "Sev?" She tried to get angered Snape's attention.

"What do you want?" He looked up into her brilliant emerald eyes, softening slightly, but still upset.

"I heard what James and his friends were saying to you. I'm sorry you have to deal with this." This brought back Severus's thought of what he called Lily last year. Sadness slowly started etching its way onto his face.

"I'm sorry about last year," he said, the sorrow showing in his voice. "I didn't mean to call you a...Mudblood." The word left a bitter taste in his mouth, and his black eyes started to water as he recalled the memory. He bit his lip to regain control and continued, "You were just trying to be nice, and I acted just as bad as James in that case."

Lily watched as a few tears started to fall from Severus's eyes. She held out an arm and pulled him into a little embrace, "It's okay, Sev," she said softly, trying to comfort her best friend. She let go and looked into his eyes, where a few more fresh tears were starting to form. "You're not a bad person."

"But I'm friends with people like Lucius and Avery, who call people Mudbloods all the time, and I even call others that. You're right, I'm a terrible person," he brought his hands up to his face and started to sob. In his head, he immediately scolded himself for showing this weakness to Lily.

Lily placed a comforting hand onto Severus's back, "Sev, you're a good person. It's not your fault that your friends do that type of stuff."

"But I should've told them!" He said without lifting his head. "I should've told them to stop it, just like you told James to stop bullying me. I'm such an idiot."

"Sev, it's not your fault."

Severus shook his head and removed his hands from his face. Lily saw that his face was red from the crying. He wiped his nose on his sleeve, and Lily passed him a handkerchief. He accepted it with a nod and blew his nose hard before looking back at her with his puffy eyes. "S-sorry about that," he apologized, turning redder with embarrassment.

"It's fine," Lily added. "Don't be embarrassed."

"I'm not," Severus lied.

Lily shook her head, "Yes, you are, and you shouldn't be. I don't care if you have to cry."

"It's just...I don't like to show weakness in front others," he shrugged.

"That's not weakness, Sev. It's normal, whether Tobias says so or not."

"But..."

Lily gave Severus a small but kind shush, "No but's. It's normal. That's it."

Severus and Lily occasionally shared some more discussion during the ride, but they mostly sat together and read their books in silence. When the train arrived at Hogwarts, Lily stood up first, "Nice seeing you again, Sev. Talk to you later, okay?"

"Yeah," Severus replied, and he gathered his things, followed Lily out of the compartment, and walked off the train to the castle gates.


	2. 2 Potions Class

**Chapter Two**

 **Potions Class**

Severus sat in potions class with Professor Slughorn, his copy of Advanced Potion Making opened on his desk. Today, they would brewing a Wiggenweld Potion, and Severus was extremely confident. In his common room, he'd realized that the instructions in the book were incorrect, and he had written down different notes all throughout the pages. He followed his notes carefully until his potion was the perfect final shade of green in the book.

As Professor Slughorn passed Lily, he clapped his hands when he saw the turquoise potion and granted five points to Gryffindor. When he came across Severus, he clapped a hand to Severus's back, "Superb job once again, boy. I shouldn't have expected any less from you. Ten points to Slytherin for the perfect potion!" Then, he moved on to James. Severus laughed as he noticed the greenish blue liquid bubbling from the cauldron. He knew well enough that the only way to get a more blue than green potion when following the instructions written in the book (The book instructions should cause a turquoise potion, which is more green than blue, instead of a perfect shade of neon green as it was with Severus's correct instructions) would be by adding way too much Salamander Blood at the end.

James looked at Severus in disgust for a second and then turned away and looked back at Slughorn, who was just going back to his desk after granting a few more points to Slytherin for another wonderful potion.

"I expect each and every one of you to research Everlasting Elixirs by next Wednesday," Slughorn stated. "Also, Severus, Lily, I'd like to see you two after class."

The bell rang and everyone gathered up their things to head out the door. Severus walked up to Slughorn's desk, resisting the urge to look at Lily and smile. Instead, he looked at Slughorn, "You wished to see me, Professor?"

"You and Lily both, yes. I am very pleased of your two's progress in my class. Therefore, I have decided to invite you to a special party with the rest of the Slug Club for Wednesday evening at 6. What do you think? Wonderful, isn't it?"

"Um, professor, I-" Severus began.

"Of course we'll come!" Lily exclaimed. "Right, Sev?" When he didn't respond, she kicked him hard under the table.

"Ow! What was that for?" Severus spoke angrily to Lily under his breath while rubbing at his shin.

"Say yes!" Lily responded back.

"Er, yeah. Yeah, we'll come."

"Wonderful! I'll look forward to seeing you then!" Slughorn observed them with huge grin spreading across his face.

Severus turned around and rolled his eyes at Lily, "Now what?"

"We go to the party on Wednesday. Seriously, Sev, potions is your favorite subject, and Slughorn is your favorite teacher because of it. Why are you suddenly turning down an opportunity to hang out and talk more about potions?"

Severus shrugged, "I don't know. I guess I just think this is going to be different."

 **Note: Sorry I took so long to write this chapter, and sorry it was so short. I've been very busy and also thought that this would be a good point to stop. I'll try to get the other chapters out quicker but still have them be longer and turn out pretty nice. Please review this as well. I'd love feedback and am also open to constructive criticism. In the meantime, I'll work on chapter three.**

 **-SheepDudeWriting**


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